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November 2007

“God is not a foreigner, He can speak my mother tongue”

Don’t the peoples of Russia understand Russian? Is Bible translation into the minority languages really needed? How important is the mother tongue – and what does it mean to have the Bible in this language? These are questions which we meet now and then.

A few weeks ago we had a visit from a young woman pre-paring to work in one of the Turkic languages of Russia – which is actually her mother tongue. She had been searching for God within her own religion, but had become a Christian in spite of the fact that her family was opposed to it. “I had read in a folder how important the mother tongue is and I began to think about my own mother tongue,” she said. “Besides the language we spoke at home, I had been studying in Russian and in English, and I thought – which language is my mother tongue?  So I read John’s Gospel in my own language for the first time, and it was like becoming a Christian once again. It was such a strong experience: I understood everything in a way other than that when I read it in Russian. It became clear to me that my mother tongue really is my heart language!”

A Kurd said: “When I was a young man I used to say to myself – I live among Armenians, I know Armenian and I know some Russian, why should I take the trouble to learn to speak and write in Kurdish? I have no home country, why should I learn the language? I struggled with these ideas, but when I got to know God I understood: If God gave me this language I will have to learn my mother tongue. Praise the Lord! There is no difference before Him, and every person should speak and read in his own language. Now I read and write in my mother tongue and I read the New Testament. At home my family is using Kurdish; even my children speak the language. I am thankful to God that He gave me this right understanding and I am glad to be a Kurd.” “To have the New Testament in our language has meant a lot to us Kurds for our self esteem, and also because we have learnt many new words through it,” another Kurd added.

“I grew up in the city among people who spoke Russian,” a Lezgi girl reported. “When I became a Christian I read the Bible in Russian. For me God was Russian, and although I knew him, he was still a foreigner to me. One day I heard the Gospel in Lezgi and I suddenly realized that God is not a foreigner; he can speak my mother tongue! The familiar words of the Gospel sounded fresh; they were full of life and touched the very depths of my heart – in spite of the fact that I hardly knew Lezgi at that time. But this made me start to learn my language.”

That is why we translate the Bible – there is nothing that can touch a person’s heart as the mother tongue does. Please support this work with your gift this month!

Here you can sign for the IBT Russia/CIS monthly English Newsletter

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